Pathfinder - The Inquisitor Handbook

Last Updated: November 29, 2017

Disclaimer

I will use content from the core rules, but will intentionally omit any content not published
on the official Pathfinder SRD due to the
unmanageable volume of non-SRD content, and the wildly varying quality of non-SRD content.
If you would like me to write handbooks for specific content not published on the official
SRD, please email me and I will consider it on a case-by-case
basis. I will use the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build
handbooks. Also note that many colored items are also links to the Paizo SRD.

Red: Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational.

Orange: OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances

Green: Good options.

Blue: Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character.

Temporary Note: Pathfinder Unchained and Occult Adventures were
both recently added to the SRD. I'm excited to explore them, and I am actively working
on adding their contents to my collection of handbooks. I appreciate your patience while
I make these changes.

Introduction

The Inquisitor is, in many ways, the Divine equivalent of the Bard. Inquisitors
get 6+ skills with a wide skill list, 6th level spells, medium BAB, and can fill
nearly any role in a party.

Because teamwork feats generally only work in melee, Inquisitors are typically
melee characters.

Inquisitor Class Features

Hit Points: d8 hit points isn't much for a character
on the front line, but it's enough to take a few hits. Fortunately you get medium
armor and shields, and you have good saves.

Base Attack Bonus: At medium BAB, the Inquisitor can
hold their own with a weapon, but don't expect to fight it out with a fighter and
win.

Saves: With good Fortitude and Will saves, and with
reasonable dexterity, the Inquisitor's saves are good across the board.

Proficiencies: Simple weapons, shields, and medium
armor would be enough to get the job done, but the Inquisitor gets a few other
options as well. Most notably, the Inquisitor gets proficiency with the repeating
crossbow. I would never recommend using one, but it's ammusing to know that the
Inquisitor doesn't need a feat to do so.

Skills: 6+ skill points will let you do a lot of things.
The Inquistitor's skill list include all of the face skills, all of the most important
knowledge skills, Perception, and Stealth. You can do almost everyting but pick locks.

Spells: The inquisitor learns and casts spells like a
Bard: they have a limited list of spells known, and can cast them spontaneously.

Domain: The domain abilities are only half of what
makes a domain good, and without the spell list the value of a domain changes greatly.
You can also take an Inquisition in place of a domain. See my
Cleric Domain
Breakdown for help choosing a domain.

Judgment (Su): A few times per day the Inquisitor can
choose an ongoing buff which lasts for an entire combat. Many of the buffs are great,
and provide bonuses which you usually need to plan well in advance.

Destruction: There are much better ways to get
damage bonuses this size.

Healing: This is the only inquisition that you would
really want to last beyond the end of the combat. Fast healing can do a lot to
compensate for the Inquisitor's d8 hit points, especially in long, protracted
fights.

Justice: You should be good enough at hitting
things that you don't need this, but once in a while it can be nice to hit more
often than usual.

Piercing: Because Inquisitors aren't primary
casters, they typically shouldn't cast a lot of spells agains their enemies,
especially those with spell resistance. The bonus to concentration checks is nice,
but you will generally only need to concentrate to caste defensively, and your
highest DC is only 21.

Protection: Sacred bonuses are extremely rare, so
this will stack with almost anything you have. The bonus doesn't scale very
quickly, but it can be very nice if you need a little more AC.

Purity: This can be fantastic when facing enemy
spellcasters or enemies with scary special abilities like dragons.

Resiliency: This is great against enemies with
numerous small attacks (or numerous small enemies). Against enemies with small
numbers of big attacks, Healing or Protection may be better choices.

Resistance: It's not a ton of resistance, but it's
quick to activate. If your enemy is only dealing energy damage every few rounds,
you may do better to use the Healing inquisition and recover HP in the rounds
between energy attacks.

Smiting: Very helpful for handling DR on outsiders
and golems.

Monster Lore (Ex): Very helpful for identifying monsters.

Stern Gaze (Ex): This helps quite a bit if you are the
party's face.

Cunning Initiative (Ex): Initiative bonuses are always
fantastic.

Detect Alignment (Sp): Great for scouting and for
determining people's alignments.

Track (Ex): Situational, and very rarely important.

Solo Tactics (Ex): Take Precise Strike to get bonus
damage when flanking. Take Coordinated Charge to follow your allies when they charge.
This makes teamwork feats much better without requiring your allies to contibute.

Teamwork Feat: Combined with Solo Tactics, this grants
you a huge number of tactical options. You also get the ability to change your most
recently gained teamwork feat, which means you can change to something with difficult
prerequisites or a situational use case.

Bane (Su): Bane is almost never a good choice for a
permanent weapon enhancement because you can never gurantee that it will be useful.
Inquisitors can throw it on their weapon and gurantee that it will be effective.
Unfortunately, the number of rounds per day is very small, so save this for big
important enemies. Note that bane also allows you to bypass DR.

Discern Lies (Sp): Situational, and you should already
be great at Sense Motive due to Stern Gaze. You also have the spell Discern Lies
avaialable as 4th level spell.

Second Judgment (Ex): As though Judgment wasn't cool
enough, now you get to use two at a time.

Stalwart (Ex): Like evasion for Will and Fortitude saves.
Combined with a Ring of Evasion and good saving throw bonuses, you can be effectively
immune to anything with a saving throw. I'm not sure why you can't do this in heavy
armor, but that's not a problem really.

Greater Bane (Su): Here, have a bunch more damage.

Exploit Weakness (Ex): It is difficult to bring this
to bear, but it's a very cool flavor.

Third Judgment (Ex): Three Judgments at once. Turn on
Healing, Protection, and Purity, and you're basically indestructible.

Slayer (Ex): Increase the bonus from one of your
Judgment types by 1 or 2, depending on the Judgment and your level.

True Judgment (Su): Save or Die with a decent DC, and
you can use it once every 1d4 rounds with almsot no preperation.

Abilities

Unfortunately, their wide range of abilities also makes the Inquisitor somewhat
Multiple Ability Dependent (MAD). When planning your Inquisitor, be sure to decide
which roles you wish to focus on and adjust your ability scores accordingly. This
guide assumes that the Inquisitor is primarily a melee character, and these ability
scores reflect that decision.

Str: Likely your primary combat ability score. Teamwork
feats, which are a major part of the class, typically depend on being in melee combat
alongside your allies. Because you have other capabilities, you aren't as dependent
on strength as Fighters or other strictly combat-focused classes, so you don't need
to dump all of your resources into Strength. Even if you prefer ranged weapons,
Strength is an important source of additional damage.

Dex: Breastplate has a maximum dexterity bonus of +3,
so a 16 in dexterity goes a long way to boost your AC, your worst save, and your ranged
attacks.

Con: Always key for hit points, especially with your.

Int: Not strictly necessary, but nice for skill ranks
and Knowledge skills.

Wis: Your spellcasting ability. Becuase you're a 2/3
caster and don't rely on direct spells to defeat opponents, you don't need to focus
on Wisdom in order to boost your AC. You won't need more than 16 Wisdom, and you won't
need that much for quite a while, so don't take more than 15 Wisdom at start to save
points.

Cha: Unless you plan to be a Face, dump Charisma. Even
if you need Intimidate, Stern Gaze gives you more than enough of a bonus to overcome
an ability penalty. You can also take the Conversion Inquisition, which allows you
to use your Wisdom score in place of Charisma for social skills.

Face (Without the Conversion Inquisition)

25 Point Buy

20 Point Buy

Elite Arrray

Str: 15

Dex: 14

Con: 12

Int: 12

Wis: 15

Cha: 12

Str: 14

Dex: 14

Con: 12

Int: 11

Wis: 15

Cha: 10

Str: 14

Dex: 14

Con: 12

Int: 10

Wis: 15

Cha: 8

Non-Face (or Face with the Conversion/Heresy Inquisition)

25 Point Buy

20 Point Buy

Elite Arrray

Str: 16

Dex: 15

Con: 13

Int: 12

Wis: 15

Cha: 7

Str: 16

Dex: 14

Con: 12

Int: 10

Wis: 15

Cha: 7

Str: 15

Dex: 14

Con: 12

Int: 10

Wis: 14

Cha: 7

Races

Your race determines a lot of your other character decisions as an Inquisitor.
Bonuses to ability scores can allow you to shift ability score buy points around
to focus on other areas. Racial proficiency with a good weapon is nice, and extra
vision types are fantastic if you plan to be stealthy.

Dwarf: Bonuses to both constitution and your casting
ability are nice, plus you get Darkvision, proficiency with the Dwarven Waraxe, and
some nice defensive bonuses. The penalty to Charisma makes it hard to be a Face, but
you can excel at everything else that an Inquisitor does. If you have a favorite
Judgment, the Dwarf favored class option can be a good choice.

Elf: The Elf might make for a good ranged Inquisitor,
but most of the Elf's spellcasting-related abilities are wasted on the Inquisitor.
The Elf favored class bonus allows you to learn additional spells, but Inquisitors
are not primarily defined by their spells.

Gnome: Gnomes don't get anything that benefits an
Inquisitor.

Half-Elf: The flexible ability bonus is always nice, and
Skill Focus can be nice to compensate for low ability scores. Low-light vision is
situational, but nice to have. Consider taking the Drow-Blooded alternate racial
trait to get Darkvision, and the Half-Elf favored class bonus is helpful if you depend
heavily on teamwork feats. If you don't want to lean on Teamwork feats a lot, you can
take the Elf or Human favored class bonuses to learn extra spells.

Half-Orc: The half-orc gets proficiency with the Falchion
(one of the best two-handed weapons), a racial bonus to Intimidate, darkvision, and
a flexible ability score bonus. These bonuses work very well for the Inquisitor.
The Half-Orc favored class bonus isn't great, so consider taking the Human favored
class bonus to get extra spells known.

Halfling: Good for stealthy or social Inquisitors who
prefer ranged weapons. The Halfling favored class bonus is helpful if you depend
heavily on teamwork feats.

Human: Always a good choice, you can put your ability
score enhancement in almost any ability, and the skill points are always useful.
The Human favored class bonus allows you to learn additional spells, but Inquisitors
are not primarily defined by their spells.

Traits

Axe to Grind (Combat): You should generally be
fighting alongside your allies to take advantage of your teamwork feats, but
sometimes it's nice to work alone.

Deft Dodger (Combat): Reflex saves are your worst
save, so this is a good way to round out your defenses if you are not focused on
ranged combat.

Dirty Fighter (Combat): 1 damage isn't much, but
melee inquisitors do very well while flanking, so this can play into your combat
strategy very well.

Reactionary (Combat): Initiative bonuses are great,
but not as important for Inquisitors as they are for primary casters or chargers.

Resilient (Combat): Bonus to one of your good
saves.

Beacon of Faith (Faith): This can be really
fantastic if your domain/inquisition is good.

Disdainful Defender (Faith): Divine spells are
half of all spells. If you expect to face divine spellcaster enemies, this is
fantastic.

Fate's Favored (Faith): Works with some of your
buff spells like Divine Favor and Divine Power.

Indomitable Faith (Faith): Bonus to one of your
good saves.

Inspired (Faith): This is fantastic for any
character who uses alot of skills.

Zealous Striker (Faith): Considering how situational
this is, the bonus is pretty terrible.

Dangerously Curious (Magic): If you have enough
Charisma to be a face, this can make UMD very viable for you.

Magical Knack (Magic): This is essential if you
plan to multiclass.

Bruising Intellect (Social): If you want to be
really good at intimidate, but still don't want to invest in Charisma, this can
work very well for you.

Child of the Streets (Social): If you plan to
be the party's Scout, this may be useful.

Criminal (Social): Disable Device is a good choice
if you plan to serve as the party's Scout, though you don't have Trapfinding.

Warrior of Old (Elf Racial): See Reactionary.

Elven Reflexes (Half-Elf Racial): See Reactionary.

Skills

Bluff (Cha): Important social skill if you plan
to be a Face.

Climb (Str): Too situational to justify more than
one rank.

Diplomacy (Cha): The best social skill.

Disguise (Cha): Very situational, but might be
worth a rank if you can make it useful.

Heal (Wis): Heal is an excellent way to supplement
your party's healing capabilities wihtout expensive magic items, but if you have
someone in the party with a better Wisdom bonus, defer to them.

Intimidate (Cha): Important social skill if you
plan to be a Face, and you get a hefty bonus from Stern Gaze.

Knowledge (arcana) (Int): Identifies many types
of monsters. You get a class bonus to identify monsters, so you don't need to
max this, but it certainly doesn't hurt to do so if your party needs a Librarian.

Knowledge (dungeoneering) (Int): Identifies many
types of monsters. You get a class bonus to identify monsters, so you don't need
to max this, but it certainly doesn't hurt to do so if your party needs a Librarian.

Knowledge (nature) (Int): Identifies animals. You
get a class bonus to identify monsters, so you don't need to max this, but it
certainly doesn't hurt to do so if your party needs a Librarian.

Knowledge (planes) (Int): Identifies outsiders.
You get a class bonus to identify monsters, so you don't need to max this, but
it certainly doesn't hurt to do so if your party needs a Librarian.

Knowledge (religion) (Int): Identifies undead. You
get a class bonus to identify monsters, so you don't need to max this, but it
certainly doesn't hurt to do so if your party needs a Librarian.

Perception (Wis): The most rolled skill in the game.
Wisdom is your spellcasting stat, so you should be good at this.

Ride (Dex): If you plan to be mounted often, one
rank is probably enough. If you're looking for a Mounted Combat build, the
Inquisitor is not the right class for it.

Sense Motive (Wis): Important social skill if you
plan to be a Face, or if your face doesn't have it, and you get a hefty bonus
from Stern Gaze.

Spellcraft (Int): Definitely worth at least one
rank to attempt to identify spells. but if you have other people in the party
with Spellcraft don't bother investing too heavily.

Stealth (Dex): If you plan to be the party's Scout,
this is essential. If you have a Rogue or another scout, don't worry about it.

Survival (Wis): Useful for tracking, but because
you get a class bonus to Track, don't spend more than a few ranks.

Swim (Str): Too situational to justify more than
one rank.

Feats

Suggesting feats for inquisitors is hard. They're a versatile class that can do a
lot of things, but they also don't have any obvious feat themes to pursue. Perhaps
the best comparison is to a vanilla fighter: tons of options, but you're not comitted
to any of them by default. Teamwork feats seem tempting, but since you don't get a
way to share them with allies, they're no more useful for an inquisitor than for
anyone else. However, there are a handful of feats which specifically pertain to
Inquisitors which we can examine.

Channeling Scoure: Your Inquisitor levels stack with
whatever class gave you Channel Energy. If you really like Channel Energy and
want to multiclass, this might be useful, but that's a really specific build.

Instant Judgment: About to be dropped below 0
hit points? About to be targeted with a save-or-suck spell? Use your Immediate
Action and switch your Judgment to keep yourself alive. You can normally switch
your Judgment on your turn as a swift action, but that requires knowing what
you will need ahead of time. You can't always do that, unfortunately, so this
offers a wonderful defensive option.

Shared Judgment: Extremely versatile. Chances
are good that whatever Judgment you pick will be useful for someone else in
the party. Worst-case scenario, use this with the Healing Judgment to save
someone who's low on hit points. Of course, it's somewhat redundant with the
Lend Judgment spell, and learning a spell is a much lower investment if you
don't plan to use this frequently. Plus, Lend Judgement lets you both benefit
from the effect.

Weapons

The Inquisitor has limited weapon proficiencies. Because I can't guess at your
setting, your pantheon, or character's deity, I am only able to assess the weapons
available to all Inquisitors.

Crossbow, Heavy Repeating: Amusing but terrible.

Heavy Mace: Strictly worse than the morningstar.

Morningstar: The best one-handed simple weapon. It
is cheaper and lighter than a heavy mace, does the same damage, and can bypass two
types of DR instead of one.

Longbow: Even if you aren't built for ranged combat
you should carry a Longbow. The range is fantastic, and mighty composite longbows
are the gold standard of ranged combat.

Longspear: The only weapon available to the
nquisitor which grants reach. Reach is pretty awesome, and there aren't any simple
weapons that deal more damage than a d8.

Shortspear: The shortspear has all of the benefits
of a spear, but allows you to use a shield in exchange for a slightly smaller
damage die.

Spear: The spear trades the longspear's reach for
a range increment, allowing you to throw the spear without penalty. This can be
a fun tactical option, but throwing your primary melee weapon generally leaves
you unarmed and ineffective.

Deity's Favored Weapon: Compare your deity's favored
weapon to the other options available. Most choices will be on par with a longsword,
which is a fine choice if you prefer to use a one-handed weapon.

Armor

Breastplate: The heaviest armor with which you are
proficient. If you plan to be in melee, this is the way to go. If you plan to be
an archer, Mithral Breastplate may still be viable, but you may need to use lighter
armor as your dexterity increases.

Buckler: If you want to use a two-handed weapon,
cast spells during combat, or use a ranged weapon, the buckler is the way to go.
It only provides one less AC than a heavy shield, and provides a lot of versatility.

Light Shield: Unless you plan on shield bashing (and
you shouldn't), the buckler is strictly better.

Heavy Shield: If you need AC and don't mind giving
up some damage output, take a heavy shield. You will need to drop your weapon to
cast spells, so plan to use your spells outside of combat.

Spells

This section won't address every spell on your spell list, but it will point out
some especially notable options. For a complete list of spells, see the
SRD Spell Index.

0-Level Spells

Virtue: There's nothing stopping you from walking
around and casting this repeatedly to ensure that you always start a fight with
1 temporary hit point.

1st-Level Spells

Lend Judgement: Ocasionally it may be useful to
share your favorite buff with a friend. Because Judgment can do so much, it makes
Lend Judgment an extremely versatile spell.

Wrath: Divine Favor is typically better.

2nd-Level Spells

Blistering Invective: Demoralizing an entire encounter
with one spell is a huge advantage. The fire damage is a nice bonus, but that's not
what you want fromm this spell.

Honeyed Tongue: Amazing if you're the party's Face.

Interrogation: Torture is a touchy subject in many
games. But hey, if you're comfortable torturing captives for information, this can
really help things along. Combined with Zone of Truth you can achieve some truly
impressive results.

Invisibility: Always a good option.

Knock: Replaces half of Disable Device.

See Invisibility: Good duration and absolutely
essential if you don't have other options in the party for handling invisibile
creatures. A great candidate for permanency.

3rd-Level Spells

Deadly Juggernaut: Inquisitors don't get much from
their class to make them murder machines. You'll have better luck with Divine Favor.

Dispel Magic: Essential in any party. You still get
full caster level, so you're just as good at this as a Cleric.

Magic Vestment: One of my favorite buffs.
You get the spell later than clerics, but you still get full caster level progression
so the bonus is just as good. However, Inquisitors frequently go for two-handed weapons
instead of shields, and without a shield you won't enjoy this spell as much as a
cleric would.

Magic Weapon, Greater: One of my favorite buffs.
You get the spell later than clerics, but you still get full caster level progression
so the bonus is just as good. This will save you a fortune, but you'll still need
to spend gold if you want interesting weapon abilities.

Stunning Bearier, Greater: An excellent defensive
option, but the defensive bonuses won't stack with Judgement and common defensive
items. RAW you can stun the same creature repeatedly ("It is not discharged until
it has stunned a number of creatures..."), but the intent is clearly that you can
stun things a number of times equal to your caster level.

4th-Level Spells

Interrogation, greater: The improved damage is pointless,
and using a 4th-level spell slot in place of two 1st-level spell slots if probably a
poor choice.

Divine Power: Divine Favor and the best part of Haste
at the same time.

5th-Level Spells

Lend Judgement, Greater: By this level you have two
judgements and you're close to getting a third.

6th-Level Spells

Heal: Ideally, the only in-combat healing that you
will ever need.

Magic Items

Weapons

Jurist (+1): Awful. Fortunately, only Inquisitors get
to use it, so no one else will be disappointed by it.

Menacing (+1): If you're built for flanking, this
can be really worthwhile. Outflank is an easy and reliable option for your bonus
Teamwork Feats, and a combined +6 to hit while flanking is fantastic.

Ominous (+1): A bonus to Intimidate, and if you
score a critical hit the target is Shaken. This sounds tempting, but the skill
bonus is tiny and the DC 13 Will save to resist the Shaken effect is worthless..

Armor/Shields

Animated (+2): A +1 Heavy Shield is just over 9000
gp, and provides a +4 bonus to AC. That's more cost-efficient than any comparable
magic increase to your AC.

Rings

Protection: You have a lot of spells which provide
defelction bonuses to AC.

Wondrous Items

Cloak of Resistance: Too crucial to forego.

Multiclassing and Prestige Classes

Choosing to multiclass depends heavily on your role in the party. Giving up levels
of Inquisitor cuts into your spellcasting abilities and your class abilities, so think
long and hard before giving up class levels.

Rogue: One level gets you Trapfinding and Sneak
Attack. Two gets you evasion and a Rogue Talent. You also get several skills as
class skills (Disable Device, Knowledge (Local)) which the Inquisitor does not
receive by default. If you plan to be a Scout for the party, you could do much
worse.

Fighter: Bonus feats and weapon and armor
proficiencies. Good for a dip if you are one of your party's major front-line
characters.